Keeping up with the Monties

Merry Christmas...a few months ago!

2012-01-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

I think this is officially the longest I have gone without posting. Now I'll have to play quite the catch up. This year, we got to go to my sister's in Oregon for Christmas. Yay for holidays with family! Since Christmas was on a Sunday, in this picture, we were headed for church!
Ben got a pretty cool present this year..a MAC book. I was so excited to give it to him, because he's been wanting one for a long time, but we could never afford it. This was kind of a Merry Christmas, Happy Graduation present. When he saw what it was, all he could say was "NO, we have to take it back. It's too expensive." It was priceless. He assures me now that he's loving it!
Ava had a good time and got some Dora stuff and a bike and a little car. Pictures to come later.

On Christmas Eve, part of the festivities was acting out the Nativity. It was cute. I'd never done that before. I've got to get a little kit together like my sister has with all the costumes. What a great idea. I promise a better catch up of our life lately to come soon!

Camping in Tahoe

2011-09-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

My family always goes to Tahoe on Labor Day weekend to camp. We ABSOLUTELY LOVE Tahoe, so we were excited to go. This was Ava's first camping trip and she did really well. She's sitting on dad's tackle box here, her own little seat. I think Ben was able to get in a few minutes of fishing while we were there! :)
We went to the Harrah's buffet and Ava tried crab leg for the first time. I don't think she actually got any crab meat from it, but enjoyed the leg anyway.
Us at the beach. I think Ava was crying, because the popsicle was too cold for her hands, but she wanted to hold it anyway.
Just chillin and relaxin!
Me and Ava in our tent when we woke up. The bad thing was that she woke up every day by 6am. Not sure if she was cold or if she could just see the sun.

Catch-up

2011-08-31T09:41:00.000-07:00

Now that I haven't posted all summer, I have a bunch of pictures taken throughout the summer..mostly with a cell phone, hence the not great quality. Ava has been caught hiding in store shelving lately. She moves the toys out and creates a little spot for herself.
Same thing here..fitting in little spaces is so fun for some reason.
We went to Golden Gate Park one day while visiting my sister in San Francisco.
Golden Gate Park again.
Ava just wanted to chase all the birds. That's what she's pointing to in this picture.
She loves the M&M guy!
We took my nephews to Great America and we went to an ice skating show. At the end, they blew out tons of streamers and Ava collected as many as she could to put around her neck. She is obsessed with necklaces! Any time she sees one around the house, she puts it on.
We stopped in Idaho Falls on our way to California and Grandma took Ava to feed the ducks at the river.
At the library. She loves dogs and points them out wherever she sees them. I'm not sure I'll be able to tell her no when she asks me if we can have a dog!

This was right about when she turned one and was learning to walk. The stroller was mighty helpful. She ended up walking at about 13 months, now she pretty much runs.

Anyway, they really do grow up so fast! It seems like she's really becoming her own little person now and it's so much fun!

We're back!

2011-08-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

I think we're back in business as far as blogging goes. In July, we finished up our jobs and school in Kansas and my parents helped us with the long move back to California. So, we're living in Granite Bay with my parents right now and probably for the next year, while we wait to hopefully start a PhD program for Ben next year. Ben and I are both going to be working and we plan on basically hoarding money for the next year to prepare for more school. I've been on a "living on less" kick and am totally amazed at the fact that you really can cut back and live on less.

It all started with a book I read by Peter Walsh, the guy who helps people declutter their homes and lives. The book was all about being happier with less and I felt like I was finally "seeing the light." I was so motivated to get rid of stuff and live more simple and basically on less money. I decided that if I wanted to stay at home more with Ava, all I would have to do was cut out some expenses. Then I started reading Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey books about financial makeovers and I was ready to live financially smarter. For the first time in my life, I sat down and figured out how much we actually needed to live on per month and it was quite a bit less than we were spending. I made out a budget and used the envelope method. We started saving hundreds of dollars per month and I was convinced. The thing is, we honestly didn't really even feel deprived. We ate out much less, and became better cooks and we found fun stuff to do as a family for free. We went on more walks and to more parks, etc. It feels so good to finally have some financial goals. As part of our makeover, we decided we could save a lot of money by living with my parents for the year. I've always gotten along really well with my parents and so far so good. They travel a lot too, so we have the house to ourselves often. And it's been really nice to be able to put Ava to bed and then go to a movie or something, because someone is here to watch her.

We've been able to see a lot of family and friends since we've been here too and that's been really nice. We are loving the California weather and Ava is loving playing outside and ON THE GRASS (because you can't play in the grass in Kansas on account of chiggers).

Anyway, so we're still in the midst of finding jobs and feeling settled, but are glad we're here.

More pictures and posts to come...once I find my camera.

Happy Birthday Ava!

2011-06-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ava turned 1 on June 4th and we wanted to celebrate! This is her eating her cake. She had strawberry shortcake, because she loves strawberries and I thought it would be a little healthier than pure chocolate cake or something. She loved it!
We tried to think of something that Ava would want to do so we took her to the aquatic center to go swimming for the first time. She loves the bath so we thought she'd love this too. She did! Our friend let us borrow this little floaty which was perfect. She even kept her sunglasses on!

It was a good day and we think Ava had fun!
The day before her birthday, daddy wanted to take her to these falls. It was very cool, but the rock was kinda slippery so mama was a little nervous to say the least.

I just thought these were funny. She gets into everything and this just happens to be soy sauce.
And finally...yay! Her hair is long enough for pig tails!

Mother's Day

2011-05-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Every time I get back to blogging I have a ton of catching up to do. I wanted to show my mother in law this blanket I made for Ava, because she supplied me with all the fabric. It's really soft and turned out good, except for the corners, which you can't really see in the picture. I ran the sewing machine right up the corners which I'm sure isn't how you're supposed to do it. :)
This is a picture from Mother's Day. Ben and Ava woke me up to these beautiful crepes. Ben is way better at presentation than I am! They were delicious! We had a good day! Thanks guys!

So...I feel like Ava has entered the "toddler" stage. I posted this picture, because she's kind of a little devil. Anything she can empty out and make a mess of, she will. Every day she unloads her whole shelf of books. She's also started this high pitched scream when she wants something and she arches her back to convey her anger. What happened to my little angel?
She's such a little munchkin...and she knows she can get away with anything!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ava got this very cute Easter basket from Grandma Montie. It was filled with toys and candy and ended up being a huge bucket decorated to match her room with zebra stripes . As you can see, she's imagining how yummy the candy is going to be!

I worked the night before Easter so we went to church together in the morning and then I crashed once we got home. The easter bunny brought us treats, but I forgot to take a picture!

What we've been up to.

2011-04-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in the last post that we went to California for Spring Break in March for a family reunion. Unfortunately, we got too busy for pictures (which always seems to happen). We spent a fun week with friends and family. The only drawback...it rained the whole week we were there. Then we came home for a week, then Ava and I flew to Salt Lake and did a baby shower for my friend Brooke. That time I forgot my camera, but she posted pics on her blog. It was so fun to spend the weekend with her. Then we headed to Idaho for a few days to see Ben's parents. So now we're home and getting back into the groove of things. In this picture, Ava got a big package from her Grandma Montie and she's waiting for it to be opened. This is one of the most recent pics we have. She's getting so big!!
She's being so patient. She pulls herself up now to anything she can.
Her hair is getting so long...she's kind of a little girl now!
This was her first trip to the Topeka zoo. She loved the geese. We decided she's still a little young to get the full effect of everything.

Ava is crawling!

2011-04-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

So... the Montie family has been pretty busy lately, hence the reason I'm so far behind on our blog. This video was taken at least a month ago when Ava first started crawling. We were starting to wonder if she would ever learn to crawl...and then she did! These days she's really fast and getting into everything. It seems like walking won't be too far behind, because now she stands up at the furniture, etc. Anyway, we went to California for Spring break and then Ava and I went to Utah and Idaho for a week after that. She's all of a sudden growing so fast! So..there should be more to come soon!

She loves her Dad!

2011-03-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Seriously? I don't think life can get any better than this!!

Happy Valentine's!!!!

2011-02-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

These are our valentine's flowers from Benny Boo! He gave the yellow ones to Ava and the blue are mine. Aren't they pretty? (I told him to get potted flowers if he was getting flowers, so I wouldn't feel like we wasted money when I threw them out) haha.
She doesn't look so happy here, but we saw this balloon at the store and Ava was absolutely mesmorized. Daddy couldn't resist her smiles and bought if for her. She loves it!We can't resist her laughs and smiles!
We were getting ready for church and I saw her doing this...eating my necklace with her balloon wrapped around her toe.
Gotta love the chubby little legs! Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day! Have a good one!

Leftovers!

2011-02-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

I was looking through our pictures on our camera and realized I still hadn't posted some from Christmas...I love this pic of these two!
Ava is loving her baths! She is such a little smiley one these days....flirts with everyone she can lock eyes with!
Once in awhile she's still able to get ahold of her thumb, but the binky is still preferred.
This was from my birthday. I'm still a little uncomfortable admitting I'm 30...yikes, just sounds so old. But the older I get, the younger I think I feel. My sister tells me the thirties are the best! Then Ben pointed out that my 30's would be a lot different than hers...no trips to Europe, Hawaii and wherever the heck else she goes! haha. I got those gormet cupcakes instead of a cake. I'm pretty sure these cupcakes are my most favorite dessert ever!
I caved and let her try a piece of licorice. She gets so excited and happy about it..it's hard to say no. I only let her lick it for a minute, because she still doesn't have any teeth.

Christmas

2011-01-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

We had a totally different Christmas this year, because our friends invited us to come with them and their family for Christmas Eve and Christmas day since it was out of town. We went to a small town called Girard and I guess every year on Christmas Eve the town bank feeds the whole community. It was awesome, because it's something you'd never see in a city. We waited in line for like 45 minutes while being entertained by a band that performs in nursing homes...AWESOME! I think they were all over the age of 75. Anyway, the bank employees clear out everything on their desks and you just eat in all the offices, etc. The food was awesome- fried chicken, ham, BBQ beef, german potatoes, beans, cookies, drinks...seriously the works! This is a picture of us eating. Anyway then that night we went to a little methodist church with their family. It was cool.
On Christmas Eve, we slept in something called a bunk house. It was like a log cabin their family had made so everyone could sleep over. It was a big room with tons of beds in it. The people who slept in there were super fun. So anyway, we woke up that morning and Santa had come, so we opened presents.
This is Ava and I in our new jammies (please excuse the just woken up look!)
Ava was mostly just interested in trying to eat the paper on the presents. We had a good time though. We came home Christmas day and ended up eating at Golden Corral that night (only thing open and we weren't sure if we'd be home so we didn't plan to make food. Anyway, it was fun to be a part of our friends' traditions!

Crazy Girl!

2011-01-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

I'm still kinda taking pictures off our camera since I hadn't blogged in so long. All I have left after this one is Christmas. I entitled this blog Crazy Girl, because Ava has been so active and energetic lately. As you can tell in this picture....just imagine her screaming at the top of her lungs and it's not because she's mad. I think she's just testing out her voice. Sometimes I wish she'd stop screaming and start talking. I hope the screaming isn't an indicator of things to come.
This is the only way I can clip her toenails without her ravenously trying to grab at the clippers so she can put them in her mouth. At this point, everything in the house has to go through Ava'a taste test! I'll be in trouble when she starts crawling.
This was at our ward Christmas Party. I set Ava down by herself so that I could clean up and 5 minutes later I went back to check on her and this is what I found. No worries...all the kids were takin care of her!
She's been pretty interested in her toes lately and it seems like whenever she is on her back, she brings her feet right up to her mouth. Pretty funny! Check out those thunder thighs!
Ava dressed up in her cousin's sunglasses while we were there for Thanksgiving. She thought it was pretty neat.

More random pictures!

2010-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

Lately, Ava puts everything in her mouth that she can...that includes her dad's hair. I keep waiting for teeth to appear, but nothing yet.
Lately, she has been so happy and smiley! I've been calling her ADD girl, because she's so energetic and busy! She loves to scream just to test her vocals and she flaps her arms up and down when she's excited. It makes us laugh.
She loves her pink towel. Whenever she gets out of the bath, she looks in the mirror and smiles at herself in her towel. I don't know if it's because she recognizes that it's herself or what.
Ben's brother did some project for school and needed a picture of a baby with a price tag, so we did a little photo shoot for Uncle Adam.

Randomness

2010-12-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't posted in awhile, I have a bunch of random pictures to post to get updated on what we've been up to. Ben and Ava and I stayed in Kansas this Christmas. This is a picture after we decorated our tree. We actually bucked up and paid the $30 to buy a tree this year. The last couple years we just didn't, because we wanted to save the money. This being Ava's first Christmas though, we wanted her to have a tree.
For Thanksgiving, we ended up going to Texas to stay with Ben's brother and his family. It's only like a 7 hour drive so it makes it pretty convenient too. We went to this wildlife park where the animals roam free and you drive by them in your car. Our favorite by far was the giraffes. They could stick their head in the car from the sunroof and we fed them. Ben posted that video because he said he wanted to "make sure it would work." Hence the reason why there was no explanation, etc. I didn't know an adult could get so excited about feeding an animal, but as you could see Ben was lovin every minute of it.
This is our niece in the car in front of us. I thought it was such a cute picture. We had quite a feast on Thanksgiving..Thanks Mick and Cherine! The ladies even got to do the traditional day after Thanksgiving day shopping. I think that was the earliest I've gotten up in awhile. I didn't get many pictures, because the battery died on our camera and then a bunch of our pictures got ruined somehow.
Just a random picture of Ava and her cute zebra hat.
Just before we left for Thanksgiving, we started Ava on cereal. This was her first whack at it and as you can see it was very messy. She's pretty much a pro at it now. In fact I just took her to the Dr. and she weighs 19 lbs, which is I guess the weight of an 18 month old. I guess it's time to back down a little on the food. More posts to come soon....

Our Trip to Texas

2010-12-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

Halloween Eve

2010-11-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

For Halloweeen, we went to our ward party on Saturday night. This is Ava trying to get at all the candy before we left..actually she just really liked the crinkleness of the bag and theses days, EVERYTHING goes in her mouth.
Yay, she finally figured out how to suck her thumb. I'm probably going to be regretting it when we can't wean her off of it, but it's cute for now!
Ava dressed up for the party as a skunk...you guessed it..."our little stinker".

She won 1st place for cutest costume at the party and won her first silver dollar. Good job girl!

2010-11-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

This is our little Ava in the last few weeks. We bought her this snow hat at Target..gotta love Target. It's pretty much my favorite place to shop!
It's so funny...when Ben or I are gone for a period of time and then come home, she gives us these huge smiles. I was actually kinda surprised that she's aware enough to know we're gone. In this picture, we were getting ready to take Ava to her first haunted house...actually it was a haunted trail. I thought it was completely a family affair and when we got there the tour lady that takes you through this haunted wooded area asked if I was sure I wanted to take the baby. By then, Ben and I had paid and waited in line so off we went (bad mom right?) Anyway, we went through it and Ava was fine. I don't think she knows enough to know what is "scary" anyway. We bypassed a few things and the actors figured out that they probably shouldn't chase me screaming since I had a baby. It was actually kind of nice, because I got to hide behind her. We only got a video of the occasion though, so I probably won't post it. I think she thought it was fun! :)

We've been doing a lot of reading lately, because it's been about a month now that ...dadadum...we got rid of cable. We wanted to save money, but also I didn't want the baby watching TV, because I will admit, I'm the kind of person that has it on all the time just for noise. I clean, cook and do laundry, etc with the TV as background noise. So no more of that...we don't get one single channel, not even news. I figured it would help me be more productive too, which it has. I even went to the library and found tons of interesting books that I'm now reading. Who ever said TV was a must? haha...because I've gone with Ben to the school to watch a few of my "must" shows like Glee and Project Runway on the internet. At least it's not on all the time anymore.
When we went to the doctor a few weeks ago, Ava was 15lbs, 12 oz and 26 inches long. She was way off the charts for height and in the 90th percentile for weight. Ben says she's from good stock...I say "sorry Ava" for giving her my big girl genes :)

Anyway as far as new things going on....Ben has been hard at work on PhD applications. Who knew each application adds up to like $100? We'll be glad when they're done. Hopefully he'll get accepted somewhere and if not, there's always next year...although I hate to think that way. He's still super busy teaching his classes (which his teacher announced to the whole class what a great teacher he has become!) Yay! Ben said he's really interested in teaching part time eventually. And he's working on his thesis and internship as well.

We actually get to see each other a little bit more, because I cut down to part time at work, so I work 2 instead of 3 nights a week. It has made all the difference! My mommy guilt kicked in (I guess it was there all along) and I just wanted to be home more with baby. I decided it was worth the sacrifices financially to cut back. And I feel so much happier! As far as the holidays go, I only have to work New Years Eve this year, but we're just staying home...part of that cutting back financially thing means you can't afford plane tickets or extra gas. Anyway, we'll think of something fun to do. One day, when we can go home for the holidays, we'll look back and miss the days when we couldn't afford to go anywhere right?

So that's us for now!

Cutie Pie

2010-10-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ben hates it when I make 2 posts in one day, but I never get around to it, so then when I do, I have a bunch of pictures...sorry honey! Ava is obsessed with her tongue. She's always sticking it out or biting on stuff...I guess she's still figuring out what it does.
My sister got Ava this little dress and we totally just giggle in delight at it, because it looks all high fashion with the skewed collar. Dressing up girls is so fun!
Ava loves to sit on the bathroom counter in her bumbo while I get ready. Ben thinks I'm training her in makeup application, etc.
Seriously...can you get any more precious? I wish I could sleep like that at the drop of a hat!
Rollin around on the floor with Daddy!

Trip to Branson

2010-10-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

So Ava is pretty much the cutest, funnest thing in our lives...Who knew? Anyway, recently Ava and I went to Branson, Missouri to meet up with my parents for a theatre/show extravaganza! :) It is only 4 hours from our house, so not too bad of a drive. We went to a ton of shows and Ava was especially entertained by the acapella groups we saw. It was super family- friendly so that worked out good.
If you know my dad, you are probably wondering how on earth he is making a child smile!! Just kidding dad..so good to see you guys!
If you haven't figured out already, I am obsessed with hair bows. She pretty much wears one whenever we're out. They'll probably slowly fade as I have more kids and they fight with me to keep em on. Ben had to buy this little jacket for Ava, because it looks like something a grown woman would have.
She's smiling tons and even started figuring out she can put her thumb in her mouth. She also is starting to roll over.
She loves her little bumbo seat!

2010-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

I finally found a little time to blog. Maybe it's just this new mom stuff, but it seems rare that I have my hands free to even be able to get on the computer. Ben and I have been super busy, but I wanted to post a bunch of pictures of the baby so you can see how she's grown. She doesn't so much look like a newborn anymore. The following pictures of her in the white dress is her blessing dress that a lady in our ward made us. She hand stitched all kinds of beads, etc...it was so intricate! These days, Ava is so alert and observant of everything. She smiles and coos and loves to stick her tongue out. She's started drooling a ton too...I hope this doesn't mean teeth already! My sister Tina came to Kansas a few weeks ago to help out while Ben went to San Diego for a psychology conference. I didn't even get any pictures of her, because Ben took the camera. Tina watched the baby while I was at work..(which is big, because I work nights). And at that point she wasn't taking a bottle super well. Thanks Tina..I know she probably went home tired. The picture of Ben with his friend Tyler was when we went to a BBQ in Kansas City featured on a recent Diners, Drive ins and Dives. It was yummy and marked the last time Ben would visit a KC BBQ with Tyler, because the Halfords moved! Sad for us, happy for them!

Ben has been super busy with school and teaching his classes. He also started his internship at the Mental Health Center. He sees some sad cases. Now that we have Ava, it makes us so sad to see how other people neglect their children and the abuse that goes on with so many kids and babies. Ben says he's learning a lot though. I didn't even know that 3 and 4 year olds went to therapists, but apparently they do! And then Ben also has to take time out to watch the baby while I'm at work. It's been quite a juggle to make sure someone is always home to watch the baby while I work. It seems like it's either me at work and Ben at home or Ben at school and me at home...we definitely don't see each other like we used to, but Ben is turning out to be a great daddy! Who knew? haha..I only say that, because he wouldn't even hold babies before Ava. She is so fun to have and take care of. Hopefully we can post some family photos soon!

2010-08-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

More Pics

2010-08-30T11:52:00.001-07:00

Trip to Cali continued

2010-07-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is Ava with her Aunt Cozy and her little cousins. On our way back to California we stopped in Boise and hung out with my brother's family for a few days.

Ava is getting ready for a bath in this photo..she's just recently started drooling more...I hope this doesn't mean teeth coming in already!

On our way to church!

When I was home, I had dinner with high school friends. It was fun to catch up.

Ava with Kathy's daughter Alana. Anyway, so it was so fun to be home for a few weeks. We stopped in Salt Lake too and got to visit with Ben's family. I feel like Ava is already so much bigger and she's not even quite 2 months. It's been so fun to have a little baby. If it weren't for the 5 months of complete and utter sickness while pregnant, I think I could have one of these again next year..haha...not really going to happen. We're back in Kansas now and I just started work again. It was fine, but I still dream of staying home with kids full time...one day I guess. Ben will be very happy when that day comes too, because he doesn't get much sleep when I'm at work and he's home with the baby. Ben starts school again next week and just has one more year for his master's degree. We are totally 100% consumed with taking care of this little creature. Life has definitely changed for us, but we wouldn't change it for anything.

Our trip to Cali!!

2010-07-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

The girls are going to kill me for posting this picture, but it's the only one I have from the girl's weekend. I always forget to take pictures. Cheryl, Brooke, Amber and I usually get together at least once a year with just the girls to catch up and have fun. This year, I got special permission to bring Ava, but she was the only kid allowed. We spent the weekend getting pedicures, eating out, shopping, watching movies and chatting. Always a good time!

Ben calls Ava Aunt Jemimah when I put this bow on her. I thinkg it's just because it's right on top of her head.

This was the 4th of July. We went to the annual church breakfast with my parents. My friend sent this cute outfit to celebrate!

These are Cheryl's little girls holding Ava. They were beyond excited to hold her and take care of her. They were so confident with her, just wanting to carry her around everywhere. I can't think of 30 seconds when they weren't asking me if they could hold her..pretty cute! It seems like all little girls are totally fasinated with Ava.

Busy, busy, busy!

2010-07-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've totally been slacking on updating the blog, so here goes for a crash course on what we've been up to lately. It will probably take a few posts! Once we got home from the hospital, Ben's mom came to visit for 2 weeks and then my parents came for a week. We ended up going home to California with them for about 3 weeks..more pictures of that to follow.

Ava has been so fun to have around. She hasn't allowed for us to catch up on sleep yet, but we're not planning on that anytime soon.

Ben and I tried to take some cute pictures of Ava...ya know like how they do in the studio, but we just couldn't get her placed right. She would either wake up and start crying or pee on all the blankets.

Finally, we gave up and took her to the picture people once we got to California.

More pics of our Ava!

2010-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Some of these photos didn't get turned...sorry. Just some more pics of our cutie!
Ava's first bath at home...note how nervous Ben looks..haha
Ava on her oxygen in the NICU.
Her first walk.
Sleepin' on mom and dad's bed.

Ava goes to the NICU

2010-06-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

So, the evening after Ava was born, they took her vital signs and noticed she had a slow heart rate, so they took her from my room to further evaluate. Next thing I know, an hour later, the neonatologist comes in to say they are moving her to the NICU, because of the heart rate and she just couldn't seem to keep her oxygen saturation up to 90% on her own. At that point, I was a little alarmed...(the kind of heart falls into your stomach feeling). Anyway, so they did a bunch of tests and found she had a patent ductus arteriosus where the fetal shunt doesn't close all the way, which isn't uncommon to take a day or two to get better. As the days went on, that resolved and slowly she was able to come off of oxygen too. She stayed there for 4 days. In this picture, it's hard to see, but she's sticking her tongue out.
This little hat kind of hides her cone shaped head.

Can you tell how exhausted Ben was???
This is Ava still in the NICU. We did have to take her home on oxygen only to use when she's in her car seat, because her airway gets blocked if her head falls forward, but she should grow out of it. We think she's the cutest thing ever and we're so happy to have her in our family.

Ava Marie

2010-06-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Ava Marie Montie was born June 4, at 12:04 pm. She weighed 8lbs, 2 oz and was 21 inches long. I was supposed to go in Friday morning for an induction, because I was 4 days overdue, but it just so happened that my water broke Thursday night at 1:30 am, so we got ready and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital about 3:30 am and then I had her by noon. I felt pretty lucky to only REALLY feel like I was in labor for about 4 hours, because i was able to rest okay until about 8am when they started the pitocin to speed things along. It's funny because i remember thinking I was never going to have other kids, because of the pain before I got my epidural, but now it's like I remember the pain, but I almost don't remember how bad it was. People always say that's how it goes. Ben handled the whole thing so well. He's usually kinda squirmy, but he watched the whole thing and even cut the umbilical cord. I thought for sure he'd faint, but he was awesome! He said I was kind of a brat to the nurse, which was funny, because I told her I wasn't trying to be, but it seemed like all my inhibitions went out the window. I kept telling her how I couldn't believe she'd want to do this kind of nursing, etc. She was awesome though and I have such respect for the labor and delivery nurses out there! We are such proud parents and even if she did cry til 3am last night, we love her just the same!

This was a picture of her first bath!
This was taken pretty soon after delivery.

Ben holding Ava after they got her all cleaned up. More pictures to follow!

As Big As A House!!!

2010-05-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

I still haven't had the baby yet, but the actual due date is quickly approaching...as in tomorrow the 31st. This picture was taken like 2 weeks ago when I could still actually kinda bend over, etc.
This picture is where I am now and I honestly feel SOOO big! Ben ties my shoes, because I can't reach them and I wake up every two hours with an aching back and numb legs. Needless to say..I think I'm ready to have this baby. I have no idea what I'm in for though, so I can't really decide if I'd rather keep her in me at this point or go through what it takes to get her out. Good thing that once the whole process starts, you can't really back out of it.

We are definitely excited to have her here, but I'm trying to enjoy this part of the pregnancy too..who knows...one day I'll say I miss it.

So..hopefully next time I post, there will be pictures of little Ava!

Baby Shower!

2010-05-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Some friends at church threw me a baby shower and completely spoiled me! I'm the kind of person that feels bad when people do things for me(my mom says I get it from her), but my baby shower was so fun and I'm so grateful to the ladies who spent so much time and money getting it organized! This towel was a pink zebra towel with hood with Ava's name embroidered on it. So CUTE! Thanks Rebecca!
This is me with the two other girls in the ward who are pregnant. I'm due first, then one 2 weeks later and one 2 weeks after that. We're gonna have 3 new little babies.
This was the food. They made such a yummy quiche, and fruit and muffins..it was so good!

We played a game, then ate and opened presents. It was perfect. They got us this pack-n-play as a group gift, which was exactly what we needed. And it was the exact one I wanted. We are completely stocked and ready for this baby...I think! Thank you ladies!

Texas Trip!

2010-05-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ben and I headed to Dallas for the weekend for one of my very best friend's sister's wedding and to visit Ben's brother's family! It only took 6 hours to get there from Kansas, so it wasn't bad at all. So this is Katelyn and her new hubby coming out of the temple.
So, Cheryl, on my left has been my friend since we were like 4. She just lived down the street and we ended up LIVING at each other's houses for our growing up years. I'm pretty sure there's nothing we don't know about the other one. It's so great to have friends like this. I even remember the first day we started playing together when I rode my banana seat bike by her house and she just asked me my name and if I wanted to play. Good thing she was outgoing, because I certainly never was. We fought like cats and dogs sometimes, but the next day everything would be back to normal...people never got that! To this day, we still get on each other's nerves sometimes, but it never really affects our friendship. I don't think you can have 2 people as bossy as we are and not have a little conflict. Anyway, we've sure been through a lot together! Her mom and sister and sister in law are in the picture too!
This is us outside the temple. We got to help her sister get dressed in her wedding dress after the sealing. Cheryl left all her 4 kiddos at home and we just got to play. It was a very needed break for me! Ben and I also got to go see his brother's family and their kids and new baby. After we left, we realized we didn't even get any pictures... we're lame. We had fun visiting and shopping with them. I decided Texas is a pretty nice place...although I might think different in the dead of summer with the humidity.
On our way home, we stopped in Oklahoma City at the bombing site. It was very cool. These are the chairs...one for each person that died. They're organized into the locations where they died. The outside wall of the building is still intact so you can see how big it was. The chairs have lights under them that light up at night. It seemed like such a quiet, reverent place...I think exactly what the people would have wanted.

Tummy Shots #2

2010-04-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

K, so as you can see Ben's tummy has stayed about the same. When I got pregnant, Ben weighed 185 and he's now up to 210. He says he's not gonna gain any more than that, so he'll be on the downward slope.
This is my tummy..I promise this picture doesn't quite do it justice...I look bigger than that. Anyway, I went to the doctor today and I've now gained like 25 lbs! Aaah...I really wanted to stay at 20 lb weight gain, but oh well. I'm at the point now where my patients notice I'm pregnant and they try to take care of me more than I do of them. It's funny, because when I'm bending over to put their socks on or something, they'll say..oh be careful...or hey, get someone else to do that. I must admit the squatting down is a lot harder, because I feel like I'll topple over and getting back up is another whole story!
Another picture..I look kind of stoned or something..but I'll post a picture soon that gives my belly real justice!

Ben's Mustache Growing Contest

2010-04-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

So Ben is in charge of fundraising for the psychology honor society at his college and he organized a mustache growing contest to raise money. He took this job very seriously and started growing his facial hair like 6 weeks before the contest. So, this is what it looked like before he began to carve his masterpiece "stache". Parents...watch out for your kids' sensitive eyes with the next picture!
And this is what he worked on while I was at work that night. It took him an hour to shave. He tried extending the mustache down his chest and although it's hard to see, his tummy has the Emporia "E" logo for the school.
He won the celebrity look alike division. His goal was to look like the guy on the American Choppers show. He ended up getting like $50 in gift certificates, which he actually had rounded up since he was in charge of the prizes. Those gift certificates will give us several nights of eating out! Don't worry, the second he got home that day after the contest, I made him shave!

Tummy Shots!

2010-02-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

I think Ben might be the only husband that would actually do this, but when I got pregnant he said he was going to gain the weight back that he lost not too long ago so that I wouldn't feel so bad that I was getting fat and he wasn't. And he said then we could lose it together after the baby was born and it would be easier. He didn't want me to feel alone, because I had mentioned I was going to have to be on a diet and he wasn't after the baby. I wasn't in agreeance with him, because I just wanted him to stay healthy, but he did it anyway. He's not quite back to where he was on the scale, but he's gained like 20 lbs. So anyway, this is his tummy shot. I'll have to post the pictures from the very beginning so you can see the difference. He says he's living it up being able to eat whatever he wants. I just want him to be healthy and not have a heart attack or something!

This is my tummy shot. I'm 6 months along and it felt like one day all of a sudden my belly appeared out of nowhere. Before this, I think people wondered if I was really pregnant, because I wasn't showing much. I feel like my tummy is just going to rapidly get bigger from here on out. I'd much rather have a big tummy though than do the 24 hour morning sickness thing. I batttle heartburn now, but that's the least of my worries! I'm feelin pretty good!

All Things Girly!!!!

If I haven't said... I'm so excited to do the girl thing! I told my mom I wasn't going to buy anything, because my sister and cousin said they'd give me hand me downs....so my mom went to some sale and sent me a bunch of onesies and sleepers and stuff to get me through the first stage. It was so fun to go through the stuff and picture our baby girl. We still get the clothes out on a regular basis and try to picture her in them. You're probably thinking, "wo, that's pretty cheesy", ...and you're right!

I started making these little baby bracelets once we found out it was a girl. Ben even helps me put some of the patterns together and he tests the beads to see what will look cute together. Then I started thinking, I hope they don't break while she's wearing them and create a choking hazard! I guess we'll see! Anyway, we're getting excited!

Finally the Sonogram!

2010-01-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm 20 weeks now and all of you with kids know what that means...time to find out the sex of the baby! I made my whole family guess what it was before I told them, so make a guess first before I tell you and then tell me if it was right or not!!! It was so amazing to finally see it and realize there really was something in there responsible for making me so sick. I think it really hit us that we were actually having a baby!
Da, da, dum....It's a GIRL! When the tech told me, I was like... really? I honestly just kinda figured it was a boy, because it seems like that's all my family has, and Ben's too! The tech was awfully sure it was a girl though. We are completely THRILLED! I am so excited to do the girly, girl thing. As of like 3 years ago, whenever I go to Target, I look at the little girls stuff just because I think it's so darling! And I think because I had such a good relationship with my mom, I can't wait to have that with her! After the tech told us, I asked Ben what he thought. I thought he might be disappointed, because he loves to rough house with boys! He said, "that's cool". I didn't really know what to think. Then afterwards, he said he didn't talk much, because he was teary and was afraid he'd cry out loud if he tried to talk. I'm glad he is experiencing the emotions, because I'm always trying to hold mine back for some reason. I did feel it too though...that overwhelming sense of thankfulness and spiritual connection. I know she'll be here before we know it though, so here goes with the preparations!

P.S. Esplin...you were so right!..about it being a girl...I guess we're still of one mind and one heart!...HAha

2010-01-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

This is the cake Ben made me for my Birthday. He reminds me of his mom so much when he bakes, because everything is always way decadent and perfect! He's definitely a perfectionist when it comes to food and it's presentation. And with school out, he's done a lot of cooking lately! I'm pretty sure the ladies at work like him better than me, because he was always bring in treats, and dips, etc for all my co-workers over the holidays.

Anyway, so i turned the big 29! I can't believe I'm so old...almost 30! Oh well, isn't your 30's supposed to be the best years of your life?

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

This was Ben and I's THIRD Christmas just the two of us! Sometimes I hate being a grown-up with a real job, but honestly I should just be thankful I have a job! We've made a pact to get to our parents' for Christmas sometime within the next two years. Anyway, we've had fun doing our own little thing. This is Ben with a present he got from his parents...a toy! It made me laugh because my grown up brothers still wanted toys when they were older too!
This is Ben ready to get his stocking! I know he's not gonna like this photo...sorry honey! :), but I think he's cute!

This is what we encountered Christmas morning in our driveway! At least the landlord had plowed a little bit. When we moved here, I thought the winters were going to more mild than Utah..I guess I was wrong!
I worked through the night on Christmas Eve and so Ben picked me up Christmas morning. Ben had to get out of the car twice on the way home (5 miles) to dig our car out of the snow, because it had bottomed out! Apparently this town doesn't plow and we've come to see a lot more of that since then. The town just cancels school and everything, because you can't get anywhere just because they don't plow. It seemed wierd to me, but I guess they just don't have the money for it.

Kansas City

2009-12-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

We took our friend to the airport in Kansas City last weekend, and since I've been feeling better, we decided to stay the night and hang out in Kansas City the next day. We went shopping at The Plaza, which was a big outdoor mall with higher end stores. It's been awhile since I've been into some of these stores, so it was fun to look around. We got to eat at P.F. Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory too which are two of our favorite places. The only restaurants Emporia really has to offer are Applebees and fast food so it was a good change.
We're taking this picture in front of a fountain, because apparently it's the city of fountains...which is fitting, because they are definitely everywhere!
While we were there, we decided to go to Liberty Jail which is only like 15 miles from the airport. We didn't realize it was so close. Anyway, you can see behind us in these pictures how small it was. One of the men that stayed there with Joseph was like 6 foot 7", and after being released he never could walk straight up again, always with a stoop. They were there for like 4 months. It was freezing and they were often sick from the food they served them. It was really neat to hear about the history of it all. They said one time Emma visited and Joseph asked her if she had a blanket he could have, because it was so cold and she had to say, "Joseph, I honestly have NOTHING, the mob has taken everything! I thought that was so sad! I mean nowadays, we'd run to the store and put it on our credit card if we didn't have money. I honestly can't imagine living in the midst of all that. Anyway, it made our problems seem very small and helped us remember how much we do have, even in the midst of our struggles.
Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be staying here just the two of us. I work on Christmas Eve through the night and we'll do our little Christmas together when I get home. I can't wait to be able to move closer to family so we can spend the holidays with them!

Our Big News!

2009-12-03T20:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ben and his candid camera...this is a horrible picture, but it explains perfectly where I have been the last 3 months and why I haven't been blogging much. I have been super sick with....pregnancy! Yep, that's right..I'm pregnant! I feel like I have to apologize to all my friends who've been sick when they're pregnant for not doing more to help out. I'm so sorry, I had no idea what it was like! I never REALLY knew how being sick for an extended period of time is depressing! I feel like I kinda understand how my cancer patients felt, although usually for a whole year while going through chemo! All I did was lie on this couch and I only got up to pee and go to work if I could. Let me just say I am so thankful for my health! Ben has been the best helper though..I haven't done dishes or laundry or made food since recently. He totally did it all. So anyway, I'll try not to expound on the sick part and just say we're excited to be having a baby the end of May. I'm about 14 weeks along and I'm starting to feel better. We've heard the heart beat, but it's still such a wierd thought that there's a baby growing inside me. I keep thinking, Am I really cut out to be a mom? which is funny, because when I was young, I was always the one babysitting and taking care of the babies. Ben is super excited and is already sharing his ideas of parenting with me. It's funny and cute! Anyway, so I guess we'll find out in about 6 weeks the sex of the baby and yes we are going to find out, because I'm too much of a planner not to. I'm still working nights, but am very excited to take a few months off when I have the baby and go home to see our families. So anyway, that's our big news!

Joshua Radin Concert

2009-11-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

So Ben and I went to a Joshua Radin concert last night. It was awesome! He has such a great voice. If you don't know who he is check out the link to his website.
During the concert there were some girls in the front row that were making out and he noticed so he was like "wow, you guys are making out... that's awesome..." But the way he said it was totally awkward in a funny way so it was hilarious. I guess you would have had to have been there. One of the girls had the lyrics to one of his songs tattooed on her boob and he was all weirded out by that (what normal person wouldn't be?) But of course he brought it up through out the entire show. Funny guy.
Anyway, so the girl behind him in this picture is from England. She and her sisters have a band called the Staves. Her voice was beautiful. I wouldn't mind looking into their music either. Good times.

Update

2009-10-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything for awhile, because I've been busy with work and getting settled I guess. I've worked 3 whole weeks of night shifts so far and it's not as hard to stay up as I thought. The night thing isn't really my preference though, so we'll see how it goes. I'm not excited about all the flu stuff going on now.
Ben is enjoying teaching his classes. He said the other day he had his students write comments about how he was doing as a teacher and how he could be better. He told them not to write their names on the comments so it would be anonymous. So the students told him what he did bad and what he could do better and one girl wrote her name on the card and at the end of it said, And you're HOT..at least I think so! I thought it was so funny, but Ben was feeling pretty wierd about it. He said he's mentioned me several times in class and he always has his ring on. Anyway, he's debating whether he needs to tell his teacher, etc. I remember having crushes on my grad student teachers, but I never would have done anything like tell them they're hot. Anyway, I thought it was funny.
We'll post more when we get new pictures...but for now we're just livin life.

Kansas City BBQ

2009-09-10T18:42:00.001-07:00

So, most of you probably know that Kansas City is pretty famous for their BBQ. And Ben is all about good BBQ. On Labor Day we went to Arthur Bryant's, which is really famous for BBQ food. The food network has been there and all kinds of other famous people. Recently, John Mccaain and Sarah Palin were there. Anyway, this is the first location ever made, so it was kinda in the ghetto! The photo below is the line that apparently is there every day.
A huge plate of meat and fries! It's a good way to clog those arteries, but I figure when you're in a new place, you've got to take full advantage of the little gems that surround you.

And finally, this is Ben chowing down! It was definitely good if you love meat! Anyway, we seem to settling down with school and work and we're doing well. Hope you all are too!!

Getting Settled

2009-08-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd make one more post to explain what we're up to. Ben started school almost two weeks ago now and he's really liking it. He's taught a couple of his undergraduate classes already and seemed to have fun with it. He said that most of the students in his classes are freshman and pretty quiet. He's going to have to be creative with ways to get them to talk. I'm sure he'll have no problem. We've been to some dinners with the other teaching assistants and they all seem great, although we skipped out on the get together when they headed for the bars.

I start work tomorrow at the town hospital working on a telemetry floor (heart stuff). I'm gonna start with working nights so we'll see how that pans out. I'm definitely not a night person, but things are usually a little more low key at night. It's just going to be nice to not have to be the charge nurse EVERY shift I work. I'll probably feel uncomfortable as the "new" one for awhile though. I think I'm going to do some Hospice nursing on the side, which has to do with helping people be comfortable n their last days. I saw a lot of that at my old job.

We actually do miss Salt Lake and our friends and family there, but we know we won't be here forever. The people are really genuine here and we really love our ward so far. There is a lot of work to be done and we're eager to help. They even had some spanish baptisms last weekend.

Anyway, so that's us! We're happy to move on to a new stage of life, and are grateful for the old one back in Salt Lake. Feel free to visit anytime! ...No takers...Hmmm...just kidding!

Nauvoo

2009-08-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

So we got to Kansas and found out Nauvoo was only 6 hours from our house. I had been there once after my mission and Ben had only been there with enough time to go to the temple, so we went the weekend before school started. We went with our friends and their boy and had a great time. I almost forgot how beautiful it is there. The last night we were there we got to Voice male, a BYU acapella group. They put on a great performance. I think I've got Ben committed to learning to sing, because I told him that in high school, I always wanted to marry someone who could sing. Anyway, Voice Male even sang "Thriller". It was cool.
This just shows all the pretty greenery and flowers. I honestly think it would be a beautiful place to live, but I hear it gets pretty nasty in the winter with the ice and all.
This is Ben and I in front of Carthage jail. This is my favorite place to visit when I'm there. The spirit is strong! I feel like you can't go there and not know Joseph was a prophet of God. I honestly felt like I was walking on Holy ground throughout Nauvoo. The Spirit is just everywhere. They call it the "Spirit of Nauvoo".
We went on a little wagon horse ride to see where Joseph used to meet people coming in from the Mississippi river. I felt close to tears the whole time. We took our friends' little boy with us while his parents went to the temple. And if you can believe it, we didn't get pictures of the temple, because the day we were going to get all the pics, it was totally storming, so we headed home instead. With it being so close, I'm sure we'll go back again though before we leave here. It was a great start to being here in Kansas!

2009-08-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

HeyEverybody! So, we're finally here and settled in Kansas. Our internet has been very sketchy so I haven't been able to blog, but I came with Ben to school today to do it. So... several people have wanted to see where we live, etc so here are a few pictures. This is our bedroom (actually bigger than ours in Salt Lake.
This is the outside of our place. It looks like a little house, but I guess it's like a duplex, because the back is connected to a different one. We have a garage which has been awesome. If it's raining or storming, I can just pull right into the garage and not get wet.
This is a front view. We actually have a big front lawn, but the natives :) say never to lay or run barefoot on the grass because the chiggers will getcha! They're little insects that bite you and leave kinda like a mosquito bite, but a little worse...so it's sad cuz it's so pretty and green here, but you can't really run through it or anything.
This is the kitchen. I only have like 2 cupboards for actual food. It's big though so we'll get a cabinet or something to go on the other wall.
This is in the living room, so I'm taking the picture from the front door. I haven't exactly settled everything yet, but we'll get there. The place is 2 bedroom, one bath, which has actually been totally fine. We were used to 2 baths, but it hasn't been a problem at all. I actually feel pretty cozy and at home here. Getting to know a small town has been fun. The town has about 30,000 people including the college which has like 7,000, so our whole town is basically smaller than the students that go to BYU! The people here are really friendly and whenever I go to a new store, I end up having like a 30 min conversation with the person who owns it, because they don't recognize me so they ask all about me, etc. It's pretty cute. Most of the stores close at like 6 though, so Ben and I look at each other in the evenings and wonder what to do, because we're usually on the go. We've ended up going on a lot of walks, because they have a lot of really cool parks here and we've found a homemade ice cream shop that is good. It has the best birthday cake ice cream ever! It's funny cuz it's going to be one of those places I crave once we've moved from here. Anyway...more to come momentarily!

Lava

2009-07-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, we went to Lava Hot Springs with Ben's family. This is Danny and Mark battling out their love for Shawna. :). I'm sure the store owners wanted to kick us out.
Heather, in her gypsy bra.
I can't believe I actually posted this picture, after I was adamet all weekend that Ben put more clothes on. So, I'm not sure if all of you have seen this side of Ben, but when he gets around his family he gets really silly. He walked through the town and went tubing down the river with only his speedo on. He got tons of whistles, but I stayed MILES away. He bought the speedo years ago in Lava as a joke. He still pulls it out today for a laugh. This is his cousin Scott's bike that he's posing on.
This was a really good little ice cream shop. These are the cousins.
This I guess was the annual tatoo fest. I've heard before that they love to put tatoos on each other. Scott brought all the tatoos and then everybody went crazy putting them on. Apparently sometimes you get tagged with a tatoo in the face when you're sleeping. This is all of us showing off our tats. Right after this we all tubed down the river, which turned out to be kinda treacherous. Ben's brother broke his arm again and I got my head bashed on a rock. We all ate the dust (or water) several times...except for Shawna..she was completely in control of her tube! Anyway, it was fun...we're already thinking about when we can go next year.

About the header

2009-07-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

So Ben made this header for our blog on photoshop. Yes, those are our faces on those characters. Kinda creepy I know, but I made Ben put only the faces so as to promote modesty. haha!

"There's No Place Like Home!!

2009-07-30T06:47:00.001-07:00

We're moving to Kansas now in about a week and now we can say we've actually been there. Ben and I flew out to look for housing and I had a couple interviews for jobs. I ended up thinking the town was darling! It was definitely small, probably like the town of Rexburg. So many things about it reminded me of my mission which I was excited about....people had an accent, it's soooo green and beautiful there (I'll finally be able to grow and maintain hydrangeas), there were fireflies, people had plants planted in bathtubs in their yards (totally a southern thing), there were all kinds of churches and even those crazy signs they post that have catchy phrases..(Hermanas..you know what I'm talkin about). Anyway, this picture here is actually from their town zoo. They have the cutest little zoo that is FREE! Just wanted to show in this pic how all the plants are so big and green..the humidity helps with that.
They have tons of parks there which is awesome. We were playing with our friends' kid at this one and Ben said my dad would be very proud of me for being able to operate this machine! ha!
This is Ben and I on the school campus where he'll be attending. It really is beautiful. We're standing on a huge bridge and the pond behind us. They stock it with goldfish.
This is another picture of the pond. They put floating flowers in tires..I thought it was clever! Ben got to see his future office and get a little tour of campus. He's excited. He's already been reading the book that he'll use to teach his undergraduate classes. I keep telling him I'll need to sit in the back of his class to keep him from going off topic or goofing around too much. I could honestly see him telling jokes the whole time :). Honestly though, I think he'll do great!
This is a picture from the main street in town. They definitely have beautiful old buildings and houses. It is definitely Quaint. We'll see if I still think that in a year though when I've driven an hour every time I need to go to a big store. While I was there, I interviewed for a couple jobs. One was on a med/surg/cardiac unit. It's the small, town hospital and they offered me the job, but it's so different from what I'm used to. I'll probably work there and do some Hospice care on the side...that's when a nurse comes to the home to help people pass away in comfort. I've dealt a lot with death and dying in my current job so I think it will be a good fit. Anyway, overall, we're excited to go. And we did find a little condo/duplex to rent that's cute. We'll post pictures once we're there.

Family Reunion

2009-06-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

K, fam...there are many family pics ahead of when we all got together. This is when we went to our very favorite ice cream joint Leatherby's. It's totally a tradition to go every time you go home for a visit. Good homemade ice cream. All the little boys are my nephews including my big, almost grown up nephew, Brandon. I can't believe he's so old.. Now I know what it feels like to feel old once you notice the younger family members getting older.

I just thought this picture was pretty funny of Adam. He's so stinkin cute! He just has such a good personality. I think he's the only nephew that hugs me to say hi when I come in town.
Brandon had to show us all that he REALLY could drive okay after wrecking like 3 cars this year! haha. Anyway, more pictures follow. It was fun to get together and now mom and dad.. we work on convincing you guys that the San Diego Beach would be very fun for next year!

Family Vacation

2009-06-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

Emily, she's awesome...so funny.
Tate and Christopher
Carlynn, Alana and Jake
The boys

2009-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned in my last blog that Ben and I went to Cali for a little family reunion. My mom got all of us tickets to see Lion King on Broadway so we made a weekend out of it. This was a barbecue we had at the lake and cute little Addie (Ty and Cozy's girl.) And Amy behind her deep in thought. haha.
My brother Ty playin a little ball with the boys!
The cutest little picture of Alana and Berk!
My sister Kathy on the right, me, and sister in laws Cozy and Amy.
We had all gotten a pedicure that morning. It was fun to hang out with the girls!

2009-06-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

So I haven't blogged in like a month so now I have to catch up. We went to California last week for a little Weiss family reunion and in this picture I had just gotten my haircut, but we were also trying to get a picture of my tan. For anyone that knows me...I don't tan, but I decided to do the mystic tan thing where a machine basically sprays you with fake color. It was kinda trippy, but it actually worked! I was totally tan. The bad news is.. it was like $30 and only lasts 5-7 days. Hard to see the tan in the picture.
This is from Ben's cousin's Heather's B day. The theme was a fiesta so I think all the cousins are making stout mexicano faces!
Sorry this is flipped, but Ben made this cello pinata per Heather's request. He hid all sorts of wierd stuff in it. They wanted to show their love for each other by posing so close to each other.

Ben and I went on a hike up Big Cottonwood canyon. It was so beautiful up there. We had no idea!
Anyway, so we've been busy lately getting ready to move the first week in August. We are renting our condo and looking for something to rent in Kansas. Ben is finishing up school and I've been busy with work. I've scheduled some phone interviews for jobs in Kansas and so far the only nursing position open in the small town we'll live in is telemetry or in other words Heart patients. I don't know how excited I am about that, but I kinda have the attitude that anything will do. Anyway, more updates to come soon!

Anniversary

2009-05-20T13:39:00.001-07:00

Three whole years ago today, Ben and I were married in the Oakland temple. When I met him, one thing really stuck out...and that was the fact that I knew he would always treat me really well. He hasn't let me down. What else can I say about a husband who rubs my feet every time I get home from a long shift at work. He seriously always puts my needs and even wants above his own.
Ben had to work today, so we went out to dinner last night at P.F. Changs, then Leatherby's for dessert. We probably had a week's calories in one day, but it was worth it.
I can't wait for many more years to come! Happy Anniversary Benny!

Moab Trip...Part 2

2009-04-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is Corona Arch in the back of us. This was really a hike to get to, but definitely worth it. This picture doesn't do it justice for how big this arch really is.
Joey is getting ready to repel from Corona Arch, because it has a repeling bolt on the top I guess.
So this is him repeling from it and you can't see it, but Uncle Dan and I are holding the rope on the ground for dear life, because Joey said if he lost his grip on the rope then we would have to pull the rope to stop him from falling. We pretty much had no idea how things would work so we were totally gripped to the rope. Come to find out...even while he was repeling, the rope didn't even move in our hands. He was so high up, I couldn't even look. I kept thinking he would fall. Anyway, it was very impressive, but nothing the rest of us even thought of doing.

Happy Birthday Benny!

2009-04-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ben turned 29 last week and said he wanted to go camping for his b-day. We went to Moab, because we had never been and we had a national parks pass that expires soon so we went to Arches. Our cousins, the Daleys decided they could come with us, so we were excited. This is all of us in front of landscape arch. It was Ben's favorite arch, because he says it defies the laws of gravity....whatever that means.
Us again...we did a lot of hiking!
This is Uncle Dan and the picture conveys the very essence of his personaity! :). We were so glad he came along.
This is us at Goblin Valley, a place pretty close to Moab. Apparently all these places were under water anciently.
Ben insisted on this picture of me trying to hold up a rock as it came crashing down. No worries though, I wasn't hurt. Anyway, Ben said the trip was exactly what he wanted for his birthday and it has inspired us to try more little weekend camping trips. We did dutch oven cooking since he got a dutch oven for his birthday. The food was actually more delicious than regular cooking. More pictures to follow....

Re-decorating can be so fun.

2009-04-14T11:20:00.001-07:00

So...since we've had to think about selling our condo, I changed some things in our room to make it look nicer. I bought the lamps for $30 at Home Goods. Check it out if you haven't been there. It's associated with T.J. Maxx and has well priced home stuff. I bought the curtains too. I made the pillows and everything else I scrounged up from other places in the house. My goal is just to give it a clean, non-cluttered look. I could use people's advice! Maybe some cute silver candle holders?? (Teen..that's where you can help... you're good at making rooms look appealing!)

What do buyers like anyway? I'm gonna get rid of a lot of stuff in the house, because I hear the place looks bigger with not as much furniture, etc. Minimal is best right? Anyway, I'd love suggestions. If we can't sell it, we'll just rent it.

Easter 2009

2009-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to turn this picture around so you may have to look at it sideways. This is Ben with his Easter basket. His Easter stuff was in a dutch oven this year, because he wants to use it on our camping trip next weekend for his birthday. Anyway, I had to hide the basket so he could find it...which I had never heard of before I married him. My Easter basket was always just on the poarch or couch or something. It's funny, because he wants to find his and I want mine to be sitting on the couch. He asked if our kids' baskets can be hidden. I thought it was funny. I wouldn't allow any pictures of me, because I was in my robe.

Hooray for Ben!!!

2009-04-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ben found out about a week ago that he got the assistantship at Emporia University in Kansas. This means he'll get his masters in Psychology, while also working with a professor and teaching undergraduate Psychology classes. Part of the reason he wanted to do this was because the school pays for all his tuition, plus gives him a stipend to live on. He was so excited, because he really wanted this. When he called me at work to tell me, we were both trying to hold back the tears. It was humbling to know that Heavenly Father really was very aware of us and what we needed. Ben thought he wouldn't be able to start grad school for another year, because he thought he needed to retake the GRE, then his old mission companion called us from Emporia and told us about this program that he thought was the best kept secret in a masters in Psychology. It just happened that Ben was able to get all his application stuff in on time. And now, we can actually afford school and not have to go into debt. We never knew things would happen so smoothly, but I guess that's usually the way things go when it's right.
So I guess we're moving to Kansas for two years this summer and now we have to think about selling our condo, a new job for me, housing and everything else that comes with a move. We haven't really told anyone yet, because it's still sinking in for us. Anyway, Emporia is close to Topeka and Wichita KS which I've only heard of before in country songs. After living in the city, some things about living in a small town really excite me. I guess it's pretty green there too, even though Kansas brings thoughts of flat, dry farmland. A lady at the grocery store told me the people in KS are great. I hope they're like the southern people from my mission...really friendly, courteous, well mannered and religious. I can't wait to see if they wave at everyone they pass while driving. Anyway, Congrats to Ben. He's worked really hard for this and definitely has had his fair share of stress!

Our mexican feast!

2009-04-05T22:39:00.001-07:00

My friend and mission companion came into town for the weekend for general conference. Since Ben and I have been in Utah, it's pretty rare to not have guests at general conference time. Someone always wants to come, but usually it's my parents. This time Claudia came from Mexico, because she's never been before. She got to go to three sessions at the conference center and I watched it at the tabernacle. It was really fun to have her and Sunday, I made her help me make something authentic mexican. I've basically forgotten all the things about cooking that the mexican ladies taught me on my mission, so I got some refreshing. Anyway, we made enchiladas and rice. I forgot they put onions and tomatoes and tomato bullion to add flavor to the rice. It was yummy! Thanks Navacita!
About general conference, I think Elder Hales' talk may have been my favorite. Just what I needed. I totally needed the encouragement to live more providently! Not that we live extravagantly at all, but I needed to remember that when are so busy thinking about what you want to buy and maybe the debt you're in, you have less time to seek for spiritual things. He even mentioned "keeping up with the Jones" which I think happens around us so often. We really just need the necessities, even if we can afford more. A basic car that runs will do... even if we want something more fancy. Excess just isn't necessary and actually excesses kind of obstruct our view. I want to better about saving money, using it to help others and living basically. Hope everyone else enjoyed conference too!

Our bathroom is finished!

2009-04-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

I said I would post pictures when we finished tiling our bathroom. We started thinking about little ways we could improve our condo to maybe bring up the value a little bit. We started with our extra bathroom. It had linoleum so we pulled it up.
After much scraping, peeling and mopping, we were ready to lay the tile.
This part Ben did while I was at my parent's house. He cut the tile with a saw and laid it all out with spacers. He said it was back- breaking work, because he was running from the tile saw back to the bathroom and had to be on his knees a lot. Next time, he said, he would prefer like 2 people to help. Oops, my bad!
Anyway, so this is the final product. I think it looks good and only cost us like $100. It was also fun to do together. If anyone has questions about tiling, we now know a little bit. The next thing I want to work on is our kitchen cabinets. If anyone has any pointers for re-staining, I'm all ears!

Kansas???

2009-03-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ben's been thinking about grad school for quite awhile now and has a friend doing his masters in clinical psychology right now at Emporia State University in Kansas. His friend convinced him to apply there and Ben got accepted! He only applied for this one school right now, because he wanted time to study for the GRE and see if he could get a better score before applying to a whole bunch of programs in December. Anyway, so he got into this one and was pretty excited about it. He's waiting to see if he gets an assistantship where they pay for all his school. Otherwise, the tuition is pretty expensive and we're not sure we want to pay that much. Ben is still undecided mostly because he doesn't know if he has the assistantship yet. So...we're just waiting to see what happens. How crazy to think we could be living in Kansas by the fall!

We've also been working on tiling our bathroom. I'll post the pics once we're done. I'm liking these little home improvement projects. Next, I want to stain and refinish our cabinets.
I'm at my mom's house right now though helping her recover from her hip replacement and she's doing great!

New Painting

2009-03-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I guess Ben bought this print a couple years ago, because he was going to try to make money on it or something. It has been sitting in his mom's garage until I told him to have her bring it down so I could see it. The painting is by James Christensen and is called "touching the hem of God." Anyway, I like it, because it has a religious message, but is portrayed in a way that most religious paintings are not. Anyway, we hung it in our living room and got these shelves and vases to go on the sides. My dilemna is what to put in the pots?? We thought maybe wheat, or those decorative balls. Anyway, let me know if you have good ideas!

Rascal Flatts

2009-02-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

I posted a couple of videos from the Rascal Flatts concert so you all could enjoy the music too! It was a great show! The stage setup was the coolest I've seen. You can tell in the first video. And the second one is one of my favorite songs...My wish. Anyway, it was such great, clean entertainment! The energy in the arena was amazing!

Those Little Rascals!

2009-02-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Last night, we had a blast at the Rascal Flatts concert. I went with my sister in law and cousin (we're cousins I guess right Shawna?) Jessica Simpson opened which was cool and I got this picture so everyone could see how skinny her legs look...after all that talk about how fat she got. She looked good to me.
Her country music is cool, but I still really liked it when she did her old supergirl song.
This is me, Cherine and Shawna before the big event! Thanks to our hubbies for letting us go with just the girls. I miss outings with the girls..hopefully this triggers more to come!!!

Update

2009-02-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

I even got sick of seeing the same pictures on my blog for so long...so I thought I'd do an update! Ben and I are still working away at school...this is my last semester and Ben has until summer semester. He was updating his resume and I was proof reading it for him and noticed it said Dean's list the last 4 semesters. It hit me how well he's done and I was so proud of him! We're still not sure when he'll start grad school, but hopefully in the next year. He's working on getting things done so he can apply. I have a research class this semester which makes me not want to get a masters, because it will mean more research papers! Ugh! I still work full time and it seems lately like there have been so many deaths. The other week, I worked three shifts and had someone die on each one! It was crazy! Sometimes you have a couple deaths in a row and then none for months. The deaths aren't as bad though when families are expecting it. It's actually sort of a relief to them at that point. Anyway, I definitely have a different perspective now! On a lighter note, I have so many patients that get better too!
After work, I usually have a show to watch. It seems like there are so many good tv shows on now. I might be embarrased to post a whole list, but I'm especially entertained with American Idol as always. I'm really liking the Anoop guy right now. I think he's genuine! Oh, and Lost has almost LOST my attention, because so many questions are going unanswered. I haven't really watched the batchelor...but I am excited for the episode when the old batchellorette tries to get him back. Anyway, now that it seems like all I do is watch TV...let's move on.
My oldest sister is having another baby...her fifth and she didn't even tell us til she was like 5 months. It's funny I'm mad, cuz I'm sure i'd probably do the same thing. Ben's sister is due next month too. Babies, babies everywhere. I love shopping for the little girl clothes!
So...basically Ben and I have just been hangin' out. I go home in March again to help my mom after her next hip surgery (my dad is terrified to do it alone..haha) We'll post more pictures soon!

Mission Friends!

2009-01-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it's been about two weeks now that my mission companion Sister Nava came to visit from Mexico. I was so excited to have her! We got together with Sister Oram (the one in the middle) and neither of us had seen her little boy who was darling. She's now pregnant with #2. Babies, babies, babies! It was funny, because I made Nava talk in English to practice and Oram talked pure Spanish! It was funny.
While Nava was here, we called an elder from the mish too...Fuentes. Apparently he is an awesome dancer so Nava made him take her dancing. They had a blast and we had fun telling mission stories all night! It's funny how no one else seems to think they're quite as funny as the people you served with. Anyway, Nava is thinking about studying at BYU now, which would be fun!

My Birthday!

2009-01-11T21:26:00.001-08:00

Ben is always trying to pull off a surprise for me, but I seem to always find out what's going on before it happens. Well, for my birthday, he finally pulled it off by taking me to Las Vegas for a couple days to see the Cirque du soleil production "O". If you've never seen one of their shows, make it a point to go to at least one in your lifetime. They are so creative and amazing!
Every part in this show had water in it. There was a huge pool that changes depth in every act. What an amazing setup!
These guys were doing all kinds of acrobatics above the water on this structure and then they would dive in.
Just another view where you can see how sometimes the water is like 15 ft deep and sometimes only 1 ft deep.
They acrobatic girls were basically bending themselves in half.
This is the hotel we stayed at. Probably the nicest one we've ever been to. We wouldn't let the valet park our car, because we were afraid he only knew how to drive mercedes :) When the bellhop tried to take our stuff upstairs, we said we could do it and he insisted..then on the way up to the room he asked if there are other hotels that let you bring your own luggage to the room. We are retards. I just said, "I have no idea." Basically, he let us know this was a very standard thing and we just weren't used to it. How embarrasing!
This is one of the spas at the place. Most of the pools and spas were outside and it was too cold, but we want to go again in the summer. Anyway, it was way fun and I definitely have to say thanks to Ben for going above and beyond. Of course, I had to ruin it by asking how much everything costs the whole time. At least I'm money conscious right? I don't know how I'll outdo him for his birthday!

Christmas Festivities!!

2009-01-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

We ended up staying in Salt Lake for Christmas, because I worked on Christmas Day. (welcome to the life a nurse :) ) We had a good time at Ben's cousins, The Daleys. This is little Michael attacking Ben which they both love so much, because it unavoidably happens every time they're together. It's cute..Ben gets Michael laughing and really riled up!
Ben got a new game for Christmas called Quelf. He was dying to play it so he roped his brothers and cousins into it. It turned out to produce a lot of laughs. It's one of those games that constantly has you doing funny stuff and making a fool of yourself.
This was a part of the game when Shauna had to act as Ben's flight attendant and act out all his directions. Way to be a sport Shauna!!
This is little Abigail (Ben's brother's daughter) on Christmas Eve.
When you live in Salt Lake, at least one trip to temple square to see the lights on the temple is a must. This is us actually inside. Anyway, so for Christmas Eve, we hung out with the Daleys and ate lots of food! On Christmas day, Ben and I opened our presents after I got home from work and of course saw a movie (a tradition in my family.) It was good, but I just kept thinking how Christmas changes when you are grown up and don't get to wake up at your parents' house with all your brothers and sisters! Maybe next year!

Christian and Brooke Bowers

2008-12-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

We also went to Cali the week of Thanksgiving, because one of my best friends got married. I think she's the last girl from our group of high school friends to take the plunge. The most bridesmaids you've ever seen...that's right, count em 12. Sorry Brooke, I get to blog this because once again, you don't have one. You'd better get on it!
This was Christian's nephew who would not cooperate with the photographers, but I love how Brooke and Christian are totally laughing!
This was before the wedding and a bunch of us get together to help Brooke get ready. Her hair looked SO pretty...compliments of Amber.

I thought this was funny. This is Cheryl and Amber's husbands holding their bouquets for them. They would have made great bridesmaids.
This is when they first came out of the temple!
I thought this was a pretty picture of Brooke. She's probably yelling at Cheryl or something. :)
Congratulations to them! They'll be in Utah for a couple weeks until they go back to DC so Christian can finish his last couple months of med school and then they're off to somewhere else for residency. I'm so sad Brooke won't be here for me to play with, but who knows, there's a chance that they could do residency at the U. Anyway, she has always been a very best friend of mine and I'm so happy that she is so happy. Christian, take good care of her for us!!! We love you guys!!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

So, for Thanksgiving, Ben and I went to California. We spent the day with my parents and my sister and brother's family. It was so fun to be home.
This is my mom and Carlynn (Kirk's wife). Carlynn made some very delicious desserts for us and I'll just say I honestly ate her cheesecake every day for like 4 days after Thanksgiving..hence the reason I probably gained 10 pounds. It was very good though!
I told Kirk I was gonna post this picture of him, just because he was yelling at me for not giving him my blog address. Isn't he cute??? :)
This Is Ben and I. He made his famous japanese ribbons, which is what I'm eating. It was definitely a hit with the family. It's that multi -colored jello with condensed milk in between. We have so much to be thankful for! Thanks mom and dad for a good Thanksgiving...I've escaped learning how to bake a turkey for one more year!

Christmas Music

2008-11-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to think about good Christmas music. Some of my favorites are Amy Grant, Mariah Carey, The Smurfs, Josh Groban, Forgotten Carols, Michael Buble...etc. What are your suggestions for great albums???

2008-11-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

I promise this is the last set of pictures. When I see this picture, so many good memories come back. This was my absolute most favorite area.. Alabama! This area didn't feel like hard, draining, overwhelming missionary work almost ever! I always felt like I was among friends. I remember driving from Fort Payne to Collinsville..a 30 min drive and just feeling pure joy(Esplin..you know). It was so beautiful and there were so many people we loved there. I honestly remember thinking..(so this is what real joy is about, huh) I was in love with the place and the people and it will always be very dear to my heart. Missionaries hope they'll fall in love with the place where they served and I definitely did that!
This was my MTC group and one of the best teachers I'd ever had. He was so motivating. This was our last day there and I remember we all prayed together in our last class and I was uncontrollably sobbing that I had a huge drooling booger coming out of my nose (sorry TMI), but after the prayer I ran to the bathroom to blow my nose...I loved the MTC so much though and I loved the group I was with. I think it was all emotionally overwhelming too cuz I really did it and now I was really going out to teach the gospel to the world and hopefully change people's lives. (Tina, I know you're probably laughing at my cheesiness right now.)
This was after a dang hard day. We didn't have any appointments so we tracted ALL day, from like 10am to 9pm. We were exhausted and I had a some bloody blisters on my feet from walking all day. I remeber feeling though, good about doing something for the Lord that wasn't exactly pleasant. I felt like I understood Him a little better too.
Well, that concludes my mission reminicsing. All I can say is if you have the opportunity...GO! You'll never regret it. Looking back now, it's hard to believe I did some of that stuff like tracting every day..but it was honestly the greatest growing and stretching and molding experience I've ever had. Gracias a mis companeras! Les amo!

Mission memories continued.

2008-11-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

I wish I could get this to go under my other post, but oh well...read the last post first, then this one. K, so this picture is funny cuz first of all...I got a perm. I had wanted to get one because I thought it would be faster to do my hair and I thought if I was gonna do it, this was the best time..no one to impress! AAHH it's hideous, but the great thing is, no one cares cuz you're a sister missionary. They expect you to be a little homely looking. Secondly, check out Sister Nava's tortilla and then mine. We made them, but there is a secret to them and we just don't got it. Warm fresh flour tortillas were so good though when made by a little spanish lady. I miss that food!
Sister Nield and I went to Gatlinberg, Tennessee one P-day. It was fun, we felt like real people. We hadn't been hugged from a male in along time, so this got this gorilla to do it. Just kidding!
This was one of those golden families. Remember those??? They showed up at church one day with friends so we asked if we could teach them. They became very good friends and all 4 were baptized!! We love families!
This is funny, because we had made a whole meal for one of our investigators...I think cuz she was having a baby. Lundquist, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, we showed up after making all this food and she BONKED us (term for being stood up) which happened often in the mission. I think we ended up bringing the food to someone else's house.
This is great, because first of all, I'm wearing a jumper!!! You're allowed to as a missionary, in fact, it's almost expected. And the funny thing is..people would tell me I looked cute! Also, this is just a random washer in the middle of nowhere. Random junk everywhere was a completely normal thing in some of my areas. I was astounded when I first got there, but then I learned that we all value different things...if the Southerners liked junk...so be it!
I'll have one more post to finish my pictures!

Mission Memories are Priceless!

2008-11-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody...I've been hassled lately about not updating my blog. It's sad, but I'm getting creative here on what to post next. So, like a week ago, I made Ben go see The Errand of Angels movie..for those of you who haven't heard of it, it's one of those mormon movies about missionaries. This one is about sister missionaries..ya know, just like the other movies they;ve made. It wsa at the dollar movie and since I was once a sister missionary, I kinda wanted to see it to see how they portrayed a mission for girls. Well, Ben and I decided it was definitely one of those "cheesy mormon Movies", but the fun thing about it was that it reminded us of so many things on our missions. I'm surprised the people behind us didn't tell us to shut up, because we were giggling and talking about memories from our missions the whole time. There was this part where the sisters were teaching this couple who were making out and not even listening to them. Believe it or not, that happened to me. I remember there was a couple where the wife didn't speak spanish and the husband didn't speak English, so they just used us to translate. It was so ridiculous we had to laugh. So, I decided to post some pictures of my mission about the sometimes ridiculous, funny and sometimes spiritual stuff that happened. Companeras....You better enjoy!!! And I hope whoever reads this remembers some memories from your mission.So, one thing the movie reminded me about was how much you PRAY! You pray when you get up, over meals, when you leave the house, when you enter or leave a discussion, when you get in the car to go anywhere, you pray to know where to tract, You pray individually, you pray as a companionship. You pray to know what discussion to teach, you pray that your investigators will come to church, you pray you'll have the spirit...there are endless things to pray about. After thinking about this, I could really use the blessings again that come from praying so much. In this picture, that day Sister Lundquist was making a journal for her family on what a normal day was like. These were my first comps...a threesome. They taught me everything I needed to know.I remember the first day we went out tracting and they made me do the talking at a door. I was terrified! We had so much fun!...and heartache too I guess, but it comes with the territory.
This is a very southern baptist congregation. One of my companions taught the whole congregation and the preacher would preach about Joseph Smith on Sundays. They believed he was a prophet. The only thing was, they didn't understand that if he was a prophet, it meant the church we belonged to was the only true church on the face of the earth....Just a little misunderstanding...haha. No, but we were really hopeful the whole church would join ours!
This is from the MTC. Remember all the candy you got sent! It was definitely needed after a very long day of studying!!
This was my first day in the field. We ate with a member family in a very broken down little trailer, but the food was the best thing I'd ever tasted!!! Even though the trailer was in such bad shape, the family was happy. I don't think they thought they were missing out on anything!
I'll have to do another post to get the rest of my pictures in!

What we've been up to lately..

2008-10-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

I never post if I don't have pictures, but I figured it might be awhile til I had more so here goes... Ben has been stressed and overwhelmed trying to keep up with his 16 credits this semester and 2 research assistant responsibilities. I'm just hoping he can avoid a nervous breakdown. He has been golfing though several times by himself lately to let off some steam. I've been busy with full time work and 8 credits in advanced assessment and public health. Only one more semester after this one. Last week, I went with my friend, Brooke, to the "So you think you can dance" tour show. It was cool, just like it was on TV. My favorite dances were: the one with Twitch and Katie and "the door" and the one with Chelsea and Mark with the "breifcase". Anyway, it was fun. My parents came this weekend for general conference and we went to my nephew, Brandon's football game. We may have a little video to post later. Anyway, that's all I can think of right now.

Tahoe 2008

2008-09-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

We went on our yearly trip to Lake Tahoe with my family for Labor day. This is my dad with most the grandkids roasting s'mores. All of them were trying to make the perfect one.
Ben and I are in front of fallen leaf lake, one of the little lakes around lake tahoe. While we were there we hiked, floated the truckee river on rafts and toured some old mansions on the lake. I'm gonna try to post more pics for my fam. Anyway, it was a great break and now we're back to work and school.

College Roomies

2008-08-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody...I know it's been forever since I've posted again, but it seems like we just haven't had our camera lately and I usually don't post unless I have a picture. Anyway, summer has gone so fast and I'm sad that it's going to be cold again soon. I feel like I haven't had time to fully enjoy the weather. The picture is of my roomies in college, Kari and Kori. Kari came through Salt Lake on her way home from her parents so we got to see her for about an hour. It was fun to catch up and see all their cute kiddies. They both have two and Kori has one on the way. So here's the picture girls!
Ben and I have been working quite a bit lately. We had to pay a bunch of money in repairs for one of our cars that needed a new radiator and head gasket, so unfortunately we've been workin extra to get that paid off. We both start school again next week and then we'll probably be too busy to work extra. Yay! Ben graduates at the end of next summer so we've been looking in to master's and Ph. D programs. I would love to live in a warm beach town...probably a fat chance, but I have a little hope. Anyway, so he has to take the GRE and we've been looking into schools. If anyone has any advice..please help! We've never done the grad school thing and feel pretty blind to the whole process. Ben wants to do counseling psychology and from what we have gathered, it's smarter to get straight into a Ph.D. program from a bachelors. I can't even fathom all the school in the future, so I'm really trying to focus on one year at a time. I'm excited I can see an end to a bachelors though.
We went to Boise last weekend and saw my brother Ty and his 6 month old baby we'd never seen. Good sister right, I know :) Anyway, we forgot our camera, but it was fun and they have very cute kids. Next weekend we go to Lake Tahoe for my little family get together. We love it there. SO pretty! So, that's kind of our little trip this summer. We were sad we couldn't do more weekend trips, but we just seemed so busy...and then after you've worked all week, it's sometimes really nice to just stay home and relax and get your house cleaned and stuff.
Anyway, until next time...

American Idol Concert

2008-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

So, at the last minute we decided to go to the American idol concert. It was amazing! It was so fun and the idols have seriously even gotten so much better since the show. They must be practicing a lot! First, we totally misunderstood that the concert was at the E center and not energy solutions, so we got downtown and realized we had to get to the E center instead. Thanks to a lady on trax we figured out where the E center was and we were only like 10 minutes late. Ben and I are such a pair when it comes to directions. So everyone was screaming so loud for David Archuleta, we thought we'd lost our hearing. He is such a little heartbreaker. He's so cute. I'm gonna try to post a video of him. I can't wait til a CD comes out. Carly was saying how Brooke took her to our temple that morning and she thought it was beautiful. Funny huh..Brooke is even doing missionary work on the road. Anyway, I'd recommend the concert for anyone that hasn't had them in their town yet. It was such a good variety and we know all of them from the show!
Anyway this is David Archuleta singing one of my favorite songs, Stand by me.. and he waved right to us! He probably likes me! Haha.

Brooke's engaged!!!

2008-07-11T11:52:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody! My blog is all messed up, because Ben was trying to be so nice and change the background and stuff for me. Anyway, he's working on putting all my links back. So the exciting news is ....Brooke got engaged!!!On July 4th! I felt bad posting it on my blog, but she said I could since she doesn't have one. So she's marrying Christian Bowers. Brooke Bowers...cute right? Anyway, he's from Salt Lake, but going to school at Georgeton med. He just started his fourth year and he wants to be a neurosurgeon. They are planning on getting married the day after Thanksgiving. They will live in salt Lake for 6 weeks, then move to Georgetown for 5 months, then they'll go wherever for residency. Funny that I know all these details I know. They met when he came home for a rotation. I wanted to get a picture of them and her ring, but they already went back to DC together for a few weeks. Anyway, he proposed on July 4th at a party in front of both of their families. Brave huh! Anyway, they are both very happy and we'relooking forward to the wedding in November! This is a picture of her from our cruise. She's modeling by the towel creation. It was the quickest picture I could find.

Homework is so Depressing!!!

2008-06-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've updated my blog again. I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I feel like that's all I've been doing the last week....hence the title of this entry. It's so hard to get back into the swing of things again school wise after having a 2 year break and still working full time. Last week, I had a 12 page research paper due and I think I complained through every page of it. Poor Benny! He's helped me so much though. He's still familiar with the formats and stuff. I worked like 6 shifts last week so I have this whole week off which is now filled with homework assignments and clinicals in the ICU. Tomorrow I go to the burn trauma ICU, which I'm betting will definitely give me a better perspective on the very little problems I think I'm having with school. I am excited to get a perspective of what that's like and the care and whatnot that goes into severe burns. I'll probably come back telling all you moms to keep your kids away from the stove. We'll see. About 2 weeks ago, I went home to Cali to help my mom because she got her hip replaced. Once we heard she was having it done, all of us kids pretty much rushed to her side. I hope she knows how much she's loved. She's doing well now and even making it up and down stairs. Poor mom though, my sister and I were both there and we're both nurses, so we kept pushing her a little farther than she wanted to go. I also got to a see a lot of old friends. I love my old friends and I'm not that great at making new ones. I totally forgot to take pictures too.
Ben is busy with school too. He's done next summer and there's finally a forseeable end. Yay! He apparently has a video on You tube posted by his cousin at her birthday...remember what he does at birthdays....The video's apparently getting lots of hits..which I'm not necessarily proud of, but I think he thinks it's pretty funny. I'm always telling him to stop checking it. Anyway, he definitely keeps me laughing.
OK, I should get back to the dreaded homework.....Bye!

Cheers!

2008-05-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Cheers! Michael kicks off the celebrations wishing well to the happy couple! Just kidding. No worries, I promise it's water in the glass.
This is Dan and Kim at the reception. Kim is Ben's older sister. Kim and Dan met after their spouses passed away last year. Dan's sister and Kim worked together and she suggested they be pen pals since they were both going through the same thing. They started writing and met like a month later. They knew they wanted to marry each other after the first meeting. So a couple trips later, back and forth from Idaho to Ohio, they were married! Dan is in airforce intelligence and will go back to work when they get home. Kim's gonna stay home with the kids...something she is very excited about! She's already talked about the flowers she is going to plant in the yard. I think they will have a blast together! They totally beam in each other's presence!
They got married in the Logan temple on Friday, May 16th. It turned out to be a beautiful day! Ben got this cool picture of the temple.

This is Kim and Dan at the temple. Kim looked so Beautiful and they were both so happy!

This is whole gang! As you know, Kim had 3 and Dan had 5, that makes a family of ten! They are going to have so much fun together! They leave for Ohio this Monday to their new home. The kids are done with school so they'll go back and it's party time! The kids already seem to get along great! And they lived happily ever after!!!!

Our Trip to Yellowstone

2008-05-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging several things at once, because I want to get caught up. We went to Yellowstone for the weekend. It's only a couple hours from Ben's parents' house. I had never been there and Ben has some very fond childhood memories there. I thought it was very cool. Talk about a geologist's paradise! I'm standing in front of a big "paint pot", basically boiling mud. I guess the park sits on top of an active volcano. My question is, what if it all of a sudden decides to Erupt?
We thought this was cool because there is all this steam bellowing out and you can see how it's kinda shaved away the snow. There are so many random hot spots. I guess like a dozen people have burned to death, because they didn't stay on the dedicated paths!

The first day we were there, it was like winter all over again. A very cool thing though was that the bison got so close to our car. Ben wanted me to get out and stand by them, but have you seen them? They are huge and very scary looking. I thought they might eat me, so I just rolled down the window and let Ben take the picture. The bison there are so tame. They just walk on the road right by the cars! We ended up buying an annual pass to all the national parks. We really want to hit Zion's and arches and all the other ones that are fairly easy to get to this summer.

Spring is FINALLY here!

2008-05-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, my in laws came to Utah for a grandchild's baby blessing and they stayed with us for the night. I saw Ben's mom peering out the window at our drab patio and she said hey, let's plant stuff there. I have been wanting to make it cute out there so I jumped on the opportunity. So we went to home depot and bought tons of flowers and dirt, etc. I wish I had a before picture, so you could see how much better it looks. We ended up planting on the patio, but also did pots and hanging pots, etc. It is so nice to look out and see color now. This picture is one of the pots we did.
This is Ben's mom, Ann and me and his sister Kim. They didn't exactly want to do the picture, but it was a must. I couldn't have done it a day without them. I'll update you on the little garden as it fills. The bigger bush is a hydrangea, and there are poppies (california state flower) daisies, and other flowers i forgot the name of. Anyway, thanks Ann and Kim for helping!

Girl's Cruise

2008-05-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy, I'm way behind in blogging. So almost a month ago now, I went with 3 girlfriends on a cruise to Ensenada Mexico. We usually get together at least at least once a year, but Amber and Cheryl live in Cali and usually come to Utah to see Brooke and I. We've done it the last three years, but this year we decided to go somewhere sunny. Most of us have been friends since we were like 5 yrs old so it's more like a sisterhood. It's so nice to have such good friends that have seen you through all the stages of life so far. Anyway, this is Brooke and I at dinner.
We got to Ensenada....not much to see, but the highlight was that we found a thrifty ice cream store. Good ice cream, our parents would take us for thrifty ice cream when we were little.
This is all of us at dinner. Pretty much all we did for 3 days was eat, lay out and watch movies.
These are the girls gettin ready for the annoying drill that everyone has to do! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but I think we were excited to go home to our hubbies and families. It was a good little getaway. P.S. We're not exclusive..let us know if you want in for next year!

Birthday Continued

2008-05-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

So this is a picture of everyone at Ben's birthday at the Daleys. These are the pictures I've been trying to upload and couldn't. The photo below is pretty funny, because this is Ben and his cousin Heather....Ben kinda has a wierd tendency to strip for everyone in his family on their birthdays, just down to his speedo. I had been wondering if he was going to get something similar. I guess Heather got the short stick. This was her stripper outfit...notice the layers. Anyway she came up to music and danced. It was funny...Thanks Heath! Happy 28th honey!

Happy Birthday Benny Boo!!!

2008-04-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Honey! This is Ben with his nephew Michael! Classic with the cake all over his face. I've been trying to post other pictures, but there continues to be errors. Anyway, Ben turned the big 28! We had a little party for him at his cousin's house, the Daleys. Ben got this shirt from his brother, it says, Don't hassle with the Hoff and has a picture of David Hasselhoff. They're all about wierd T shirts. I'll try to post the other pics now.

More pics

2008-04-13T18:46:00.001-07:00

OK, Sorry, last time all my pictures wouldn't load. Fam, these are for you.....This is me with my sister and our three cute nephews, Adam, Nathan and Dallin
This is my cute niece Emily. The waiter brought her like 4 desserts and she was thinkin that was pretty cool, so here she is with all her desserts!
This is my sister Kathy and her family. As you can tell, we look a lot a like.
This is my oldest brother Darryl and his family. His older boys thought t would be cool to try to pose GQ.
This is my second oldest brother Kirk and his girlfriend Carlynn (not sure on the spelling)with three of their kids. It looks like Adam is trying to pose GQ too. Funny kid.

Anyway, Ben and I haven't been up to much lately. We watched general conference with my parents here and even got to go to a session at the conference center. We've pretty much just been doing work and school. I'm starting school again this summer..a couple online classes in order to finish my BS in nursing. I almost forgot how incredibly expensive books are. I'm not totally excited about writing papers, etc, but it will be good to be actively learning and studying again. Ben is going to school in the summer too. Year round til he gets it done, then on to a masters. That's about it for now

My cute fam!

2008-04-12T18:16:00.002-07:00

I'm posting some more pictures for my family from our trip last February. I heard they were trying to look up pictures from the vacation on my blog, so here are a few more...

The happy couple!

2008-04-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so on Sunday night, Ben's sister, Kim, brought her fiance, Dan, over to our house to meet us (and about twenty other people). Needless to say it was a mad house but it was really fun to see everyone. It was exciting for everyone to meet Dan too. The funny thing is both he and Kim lost their spouses less than a year ago and between the two of them, they have 8 kids! (not funny "ha ha" but funny "hmm, interesting" :) Anyways, Dan is great! He works in Air Force intelligence and got along great with the family. He was even able to endure the interrogation that he got from the family. Dan is from Tremonton (Marisha, do you know him?). His last name is McComb (i think thats how you spell it). Anyways, he and Kim are totally cute together and you can just tell Kim adores him. I am so excited for them! the wedding is may 16th and then Kim is off to Ohio to be a stay-at-home mom of eight.
And p.s. I'll bet anything Kim is pregnant before me!

Snow Camping

2008-03-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, I'm not sure how to flip this picture and Ben is not around right now to help me. This is him getting ready for a scout campout. He's the leader in our ward for the 11 year olds. We knew it would be cold, so we spent a bunch a time buying this jacket, snow pants and boots. They drove 3 hours away only to camp in some rancher's driveway. I just laughed when he told me. Another guy planned the campout and he for some reason planned to camp in someone's driveway. Ben was such a good sport about it. Anyway we bought the jacket at a place called Steve and Barry's. We'd never been there, but it's a big clothes store and everything is 8.98. We were stunned. We felt like we were in the twilight zone. They had like big winter coats and stuff for 8 bucks. Their goal is to provide anyone with clothes at an affordable price. Sara Jessica Parker has a line there. I even saw a coat made by her that was like a really nice church coat for $8. They sell some cheap shirts, baby clothes, etc for 8 bucks too. Maybe that's where they make up their money. Anyway, check it out if you have one.

Yum!!

2008-03-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I know I've been pretty bad at keeping up with the blog lately. I've been working a ton this week. They keep coming up with different little things for me to be charge of that don't have anything to do with my normal shifts on the floor. We're going to physician computer entry so I get to be one of the lucky ones to train everyone...as if I even know anything about computers. Anyway, so one night when I got home from a 12 hour shift, my cute hubby had made me an awesome dinner.It was pasta with tons of vegetables and special cheeses. It was so yummy!...so I thought I'd post the recipe. Ben always goes all out with his dinners. Mine are whatever is easiest and fastest!

2 red peppers, cored and cut into 1-inch wide strips 2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes 2 summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes 4 cremini mushrooms, halved 1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1-inch strips 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon salt, divided 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided 1 tablespoon dried Italian herb mix or herbs de Provence 1 pound penne pasta 3 cups marinara sauce (store bought or homemade) 1 cup grated fontina cheese 1/2 cup grated smoked mozzarella 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/3 cup for topping 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
On a baking sheet, toss the peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, and onions with olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and dried herbs. Roast until tender, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes. Since you will be cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, you want to make sure the inside is still hard. Drain in a colander.
In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, cheeses, peas, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix, until all the pasta is coated with the sauce and the ingredients are combined.
Pour the pasta into a greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Top with the remaining 1/3 cup Parmesan and butter pieces. Bake until top is golden and cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

American Idol

2008-02-17T15:50:00.002-08:00

American Idol fans,
So I think this season has really proved that there are still really talented singers out there. It keeps getting better for me. I'm really liking Syesha this season and I think there's some good guy rockers. Anyway, what do you think?

Happy late Valentine's Day!

2008-02-17T15:50:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's day! It takes me a couple of days to get caught up. We went to cheesecake factory for lunch and were so STUFFED! We thought we'd beat the dinnertime rush. I highly recommend the banana cream cheesecake. Ben always gets the chocolate tuxedo kind ( he's inherited his love of chocolate from his dad.) He says his dad can eat a box of see's chocolate in one sitting! I don't know how he doesn't get sick.
Anyway, that night we made crepes, the dessert kind. My roommate in college still made them so much better than I can.
Anyway, lots of people did a little tribute to their husbands on Valentine's Day. I just have to say thank you to my hubby for always thinking of me before himself. He always wanders around stores with me, that he wouldn't really care to go to, he always sees girl movies with me, he wouldn't otherwise see and he always eats where I want to. These are all little things, but he's always so concerned about my happiness. Thanks honey for letting me be the boss! hehe

2008-02-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

So, also on our little vacation, we went to Disneyland and California Adventure. Ben had never been to either(I know right..what kid has never been to Disneyland?) Anyway, I was so excited to take him. My family has such fond childhood memories of Disneyland. Ben enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I would have liked. He hates roller coasters, but we got him to do space mountain and splash mountain. They take a picture on space mountain and in it, he was holding on sooo tight to the bar and had a look of complete horror on his face. It was hilarious, but by the time I went to buy it, the lady couldn't find the picture. It was classic though. He loved splash mountain, but his absolute favorite was Indiana Jones. The pictures are of us in front of Tom Sawyer Island, Ben in Star Tours and me with my two oldest nephews waiting in line. They're getting so Big!!

I had never been to California Adventure before and I really enjoyed something new to explore. I highly recommend "sourin over california". It really feels like you're paragliding over the state and you can even smell the pine trees and orange groves. Oh I love Cali! Maybe we'll get back there someday. The best part of it all was the weather. It was in the 70's and actually hot. We got sunburns. It felt so good!

Anyway, I'm still getting used to the blog stuff and I'm trying to put links on our website. We'll see how that goes. Also I can't send a message back to someone who makes a comment on my blog right? Cuz I wish I could.

Family Vacation

2008-02-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
Just so you know I'm very new at this, but I have finally succumbed to a BLOG. I've had so much fun looking at everyone else's and it's such a good way to keep in touch with everyone. So here I am. Anyway, Ben and I just got back from a family vacation with my family. We went on a 4 day cruise to Catalina and Ensenada. It was so nice to go to WARM weather. It made me that anxious to get back to California one day. A couple of things we did there were....ate 24 hour pizza and ice cream until we were sick, Ben karaoked "Annie's Song" to me one night and made the karaoke host "cry" she said; he karaoked with my sister and nephew too, He couldn't get me up there. We had fancy dinners, sat by the pool, went to game shows, dancing lessons, miniature golf, bargained with some Mexicans at the flea market. Here are some pics from the cruise....

These are all pics of the fam...driving golf carts around Catalina, at the formal dinner, then at dinner. Sorry I can't get the pictures right.

Under the weather

2008-01-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

Well, the last couple of days has been a little rough. Ben and i have been pretty sick with colds lately. I'm pretty sure he gave it to me though so I'm currently not speaking to him. To make things worse he is insisting on creating a blog for me. I refuse to do it so this is actually him writing all of this. Men! Am I right ladies? Anyways, since i don't have any pics of our runny noses, I'll post some other random pics so this isn't such a boring experience for you all. Enjoy those. OK, well stay tuned for my next exciting blog entry since I'm sure you are all interested in what i ate for lunch the other day or what i do when I'm bored.

p.s. blog is short for web-log. did you guys know that???
p.p.s. this is what it would look like if Ben and I had kids. Thanks Mickey and Mark!